Travis, to make Dexter look good in
comparison. This sort of manipulation
felt cheap: maybe Dexter doesn't need to
be punished, but he also doesn't need to
be romanticized.
The show's original appeal lay in the
way it inverted shows like "CSI," in
which the good guys slice into splayed
female corpses, and yet the viewer is off
the hook, since it's all in the name of jus-
tice. On "Dexter," the title character was
also a type of detective, hacking his way
toward self-knowledge, but he was more
profound, and more legitimate, because
he was no hero. Whenever Dexter con-
fronted his victims with their crimes, it
was a dark parody of a police interroga-
tion as well as a variant on the notion of
detective work as psychoanalysis. But
lately a different comparison comes to
mind: "24," which paid lip service to its
rule-breaker's "dark side," only to get off
on his brutality. With stellar ratings, and
a renewal for two more seasons, "Dex-
ter" has me worried. The better Dexter
h " D " b
gets t e worse exter may ecome.
" R evenge," a new drama on ABC,
has found its own cunning take
on the procedural, with a protagonist as
charismatic as Dexter, and maybe even
nuttier. The series is based-very, very,
very loosely-on "The Count of Monte
Cristo." Emily VanCamp stars as Emily
Thome, who seeks weekly payback on
the wealthy Hamptonites who had her
institutionalized as a child and framed
her father for unspeakable crimes. The
show's signature motif is of someone
standing just outside a mansion, eyes
narrowed in righteous melancholy. It
could be the official soap opera of Oc-
cupy Wall Street.
The show's candied look suggests a
camp-fest like "Gossip Girl," but "Re-
venge" is actually a full-on melodrama,
replete with strong emotions. Viewers
may get high on the tablecloth pornog-
raphy-the cameras swoon and swan
over elegant swimming pools and thick
marble countertops-but the people in
those fancy kitchens aren't kidding
around. They rage; they are heartbro-
ken; they say things like "Every time I
hug you, the warmth you feel is my ha-
o tred burning through."
There are standards of quality even
in over-the-top TV shows. Just as an
2 ambitious teen show features interesting
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In the new season of "Dexter, " its creators are letting their antihero off the hook.
parents, a truly effective melodrama
gives us villains with sad, complicated
hearts. As Victoria Grayson, Emily's
nemesis, a charity-circuit viper with
muffled remorse, Madeleine Stowe
owns this show. One episode began
with a severe closeup of her eye, fanned
by delicate lines. "As Hamlet said to
Ophelia," Emily's voice-over purrs (like
"Dexter," "Revenge" is fuelled by its arch
narration), "'God has given you one face
and you make yourself another.'" Victo-
ria's eyes are sad, but her cheekbones
round into a smile as an invisible some-
one brushes on blusher, preparing her
for a photo shoot celebrating her mar-
riage, which is falling apart. The show
is full of gorgeous, ridiculous sequences
like this, scored to lush pop: Douglas
Sirk for the age of Bot ox.
But "Revenge" is too juicy to write off
as junk. It's got strong performances,
from actors who don't condescend to
their flamboyant dialogue. And it has
a few intriguing modern elements-
among other things, it's as obsessed with
paranoid voyeurism as Showtime's
"Homeland." Every once in a while, I
imagine that Emily was institutionalized
for a reason; maybe she's hallucinating
this whole scheme? If she has a dark pas-
senger, it's probably Bernie MadofE.
N EWYORKE R.COM/ GO / cu L TU RE DESK
EmiJr Nussbaum on "Homeland."